Category Archives: Uncategorized

Zaatar W Zeit’s Act of Kindness

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

I was walking around Beirut the other day, in neighborhoods I hadn’t been to in a long time, only to find streets that have drastically changed. The most poignant moment of my walk was when I saw an old woman, sitting by the corner of the road crying. She had her mattress next to her. She had nowhere to go. The walk up to that woman was full of people like her. Things are getting tougher and there’s nothing to make them easier.

As a rule of thumb, it can be said that Lebanese restaurants are very disassociated with the general security of the country. As things get tougher, their prices get higher. I’ve rarely, if ever, heard of stories like the one below. But it is one of those rare instances that take you a few minutes to believe. 

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Of course, Zaatar w Zeit didn’t advertise this. It…

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A Tale of Two Cities: Lebanon Edition

Tripoli indeed deserves better, especially it’s children!

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

I went to watch a movie in Beirut yesterday. It was done by 1AM so I simply went back home. As I walked up the sidewalk leading to my apartment, I could hear the parties bustling around me. Gemmayzé was gearing up to lose its cars. Cars were still circling the roads fervently in search for their next destination.

Even the movie that I watched was marred by the beats being dropped at a nearby nightclub. It was one of those old cinemas that didn’t bother invest in soundproof systems. Or was the club too loud? I guess nightlife in Beirut is alive and well. All was well.

As I walked back home, there was probably someone my age also making his way back to his place in the Northern city of Tripoli. Unlike me, however, he did not walk carelessly to his apartment, carefully examining his surroundings. That man…

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Reflect upon Thanks #poetry #photography

penned in moon dust

trees

Here is the Verse First Prompt:

WALK IN GRATITUDE

Today’s is another simple prompt. Take a walk. On that walk, observe your surroundings with an eye of gratitude. When you return to your writing-table, quickly write down your observations, then refine them; burn away the dross to reveal a poem that will imbue your readers with gratitude, too.
Look out
upon this bare world
cold, snow etched horizon
life stripped by season’s storm
where hides the sun?
*
 I sit in reflection
scanning my forest
I walk in this dream
never to awaken
to cold cruelty again
*
I watch life
it smiles at me
So Thankful
to have lived
to see this day
fall's creatures
To each of you  I wish hope for a time of Thanksgiving. Enjoy time to spend in warmth with friends and family.

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The Jamerek That Cried Wolf

Democracy is still day by day – that is sad for the majority who simply want to live freely and securely.

A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares

The last time Lebanese security personnel openly beat up civilians with absolutely no regards to the potential repercussions to their actions was when the Syrian security apparatus was ruling our country. Back then, I had to cross checkpoints set up by that army in order to go to school. We were not allowed to voice opposition… or else. We were bombarded with images of the young men and women who tried to defy that apparatus: how they were beaten up then taken in those army vehicles to some jail cell in who knows where.

Things have been miserable in Lebanon, yes. But amid all of the tensions and the violence and the country not knowing where it’s heading, I didn’t think I’d see people getting beaten up by armed forces whose job is to supposedly maintain order.

NewTV’s journalistic crew was researching the corruption that infests Lebanese Customs at our…

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